Seamus Ong

I suppose I was involved in birdwatching from a very young age.

You know, I always loved nature and wildlife.

And since a very young age, really, I would have always gone out birdwatching.

I would have gone to some of the Birdwatch Ireland meetups.

You know, there's local branches from Birdwatch Ireland that have different meetups.

And I would have, let's say, really always gone to those there and just loved going out birdwatching.

Absolutely.

I think, you know, there is a good lot of, let's say, there's people who have always been interested.

And it's maybe difficult to find some of those young people out there who are interested in bird watching.

But what it seems to be the case is that there's more people out there that genuinely have an interest in maybe, let's say, nature and wildlife.

And they're also, when they see other people that are interested, they're also thinking, you know what, maybe it's something for me, maybe to go out and experience a bit of wildlife.

Wow.

I think personally at the moment, you know, our lives are so busy at the moment, particularly for young people, you know, we're very busy with college, let's say work, you know, there's all exams and, you know, our evening activities, social media.

There's such a pressure around young people's lives at the moment.

And I think sometimes we need just a bit of time to reconnect into nature again.

And I think sometimes

There's a real desire for young people to maybe go, whether even if it's a small amount, let's say, going out for, let's say, a walk or something like that.

And I think slowly what I've been seeing is that, particularly through my group and the Young Birdwatchers group, that we find that there's a lot of young people who actually are thinking, yes, I do like going out for a walk, but...

I never actually noticed how nice it was, let's say, looking at the birds as well.

And, you know, I never I never really appreciated before.